Road trips can be long and uneventful at times. You will often hear, “Are we there yet?” coming from the backseat of your vehicle, not just once, but several times throughout the journey. Your kids will have a hard time not feeling restless or bored. The cool game's technology provides eventually become less interesting to your children, especially if there is still a lot of driving ahead before reaching the desired destination.
As a parent, your goal is to make road trips memorable and something your kids will talk about for years to come, thus, you want to remove boredom from the car and create a fun environment. Sometimes in order to pass time, it is best to put devices away and go back to the basics by using fun and free games for kids.
As you go through the list below, you may remember some of these games from your childhood.
With some of these games, you may need materials in order to play. It is a good idea to prepare by having these items available in the vehicle before starting your trip.
- License Plate Game - With a pad and paper, write down each state spotted on passing cars license plates. The goal is to end up with a list of all of the states. You can even make this educational by printing out a map and having the child check off the correct states on the map.
I Spy - To start the game, one must say - “I spy with my little eye, something yellow”. The idea is to give a clue (in this instance, we used the color yellow as the clue) about something you see in and around your area. Your kids will then take turns guessing which item you are talking about based on the clue given.
20 Questions - To play, think of a person, place, or thing. Your children will ask questions to try and find out what it is you chose to think about. The person can only answer questions with a simple yes or no. After each answer, the questioner has the opportunity to guess. Keep playing until a player guesses it correctly or when the 20 questions have used up.
Tic-Tac-Toe - This game requires 2 players, a piece of paper, and a pencil. You can also use a small chalkboard, chalk, and brush as a substitute (This will save paper and create a much lesser mess). When ready to play, create a grid on either the paper or chalkboard and have one player put an X in one of the boxes on the grid, while the other places an O. Whoever gets three across, wins the game.
Use these 4 fun and free games with your kids to make the road trip entertaining for all. What are some of your favorites?
